Handbook of practical cookery

Veal Pie. — Two pounds fillet of veal, five ounces of bread crumb, three ounces of suet, one tea-spoonful chopped parsley, one tea-spoonful dried herbs, two eggs, two ounces lean ham, one tea-spoonful of salt, one half tea-spoonful of pepper, one grain cayenne, one half pint of stock. Remove all skin from the suet, place it on a board, and chop it very finely. "Wash well the parsley, put it in the corner of a towel, wring it very dry, then chop it finely also ; chop finely the ham. Place now in a basin the bread * See directions for boiled rice on page 237. t Directions for forcemeat balls, see page 65. PIGEONS AND TOMATOES. 63 crumb, add the suet, parsley, and ham ; season with the salt, pepper, and cayenne; add now the herbs, stir all well together, and bind with the eggs. Cut now in pieces about four inches square the veal ; roll into each piece an equal quantity of the stuffing, place the rolls in a pie-dish, and pour over the stock. Cover the pie-dish with rough puff paste, directions for which see page 197. Pigeons and Tomatoes. — One pair of pigeons, one quarter pound bacon, one half quart tin of tomatoes, one gill cream, one ounce butter, one ounce flour, one gill stock, one tea-spoonful salt, one salt-spoonful pepper. Draw and wash thoroughly the pigeons ; cut off the heads and necks, also the toes at first joints. Twist the wings behind the shoulders. Thread a trussing-needle with twine, pass the needle through the under part of the wing, then through the top of one leg straight through the body, through the top of the other leg, then through the under part of the remaining wing. Turn the pigeon on its breast, pass the needle through the top of the wing, through the skin at the neck, then through the top of the remaining wing. Tie the two ends of the twine closely together ; cross the legs at the bottom of the breast, then tie them tightly together. Cut now in small square pieces the bacon, place the pieces in a stew-pan, place the pan over the fire until the bacon takes a pale-brown colour. Place then in the pan the pigeons, and brown them all over ; add now the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and stock, and allow all to cook very slowly for an hour and a half. Eemove the pigeons, and pass the tomatoes and stock through a coarse wire sieve. Melt in the stew-pan the butter, add the flour, and stir both well together ; pour in then the tomatoes and stock, stir all till boiling, skim well, add the pigeons, cook slowly ten minutes longer, and at the last moment before serving add the cream. Duck with Green Pease. — One young duck, one pint of green pease, one tea-spoonful .of salt, one half tea-spoonful of pepper, one half pint of stock, two ounces of butter. Draw and truss the duck. Melt in a large stew-pan the butter, and when it smokes place in the duck breast downwards. When both sides of the breast are browned turn it over, and brown the legs and back ; this takes about twenty minutes. Add then the stock, and when it boils skim it well ; add the pepper and salt, and allow this to cook for three-quarters of an hour very slowly. Add then the pease, and cook all twenty minutes longer.